Big Tent Democrat catches this little gem:

MoBlue points out this quote reported by ABC:

As one top Democrat told me, the fundamental problem [with Baucuscare] is that Democrats “are being asked to support a bipartisan bill that doesn’t have bipartisan support.” The compromise without the cover.

Indeed. And Obama wants this? Really? Nuts.

It is nuts, but it provides one of the few rays of optimism I can dredge up at this point. Without the cover of bipartisan support, this bill is totally owned by the Democrats — and that should worry them.

I wrote this a while back when it became clear that the Republicans weren’t going to cooperate:

The sell-outs are almost begging the Republicans to help them pass the terrible, insurance company giveaway bill they want so badly — and the Republicans just won’t cooperate. They are making the Democrats go this alone, which is the last thing they want to do because they have to face their own voters after passing something that won’t work — and now they know the Republicans will kill them no matter what they do. They have nowhere to hide.

If these Democrats had a brain in their heads they’d realize that the best way to maintain their power (and keep getting those big bucks) is to pass a good bill. Successful reform will be their only defense because the true political downside to passing a bad bill now is being out there alone selling out the American people all by themselves.

It’s quite clear these corporatists really don’t want to pass a good bill — they are, after all, more loyal to big business than the Republicans at this point, who see that there is great political hay to be made in taking the populist side (at least until they get back into power.) But in the end the Republicans may just force them to pass something decent anyway by failing to give them the cover for capitulation they so desperately need. It’s an interesting squeeze play that may backfire on the GOP in the long run if good health care reform is passed. (Let’s hope so anyway.)

It’s ironic that if real health care reform is ultimately achieved, it will be at the hands of obstructionist Republicans who refused to help the sell-out Dems. What a screwed up system.

Obama admitted that he would “own” this bill, which he will. But these Democrats in the congress had better worry about the same thing if they pass some crappy bill without being able to claim they needed to compromise with theRepublicans. The American people are going to have no one to blame but them.

And Republican obstructionism presents another problem for the conservadems as well:

According to Martin Paone, a legislative expert who’s helping Democrats map out legislative strategy, a more robust public option–one that sets low prices, and provides cheap, subsidized insurance to low- and middle-class consumers–would have an easier time surviving the procedural demands of the so-called reconciliation process. However, he cautions that the cost of subsidies “will have to be offset and if [the health care plan] loses money beyond 2014…it will have to be sunsetted.” And there the irony continues: Some experts, including on Capitol Hill, believe that a more robust public option will generate crucial savings needed to keep health care reform in the black, thus prevent it from expiring.

If there is zero GOP support and reconciliation really is the only way to get a bill (assuming the Democrats still want one) the conservadems may have to face the fact that only the government can ensure the savings that everyone has been insisting upon. It’s quite a conundrum for them.

Like I said, it’s a long shot. But nothing’s settled yet and anything could happen.

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